Well, I didn’t come to Holland for the wine or the coffee or even necessarily its culinary prowess. Different countries are known for different things. You go to Italy for wine and pasta, olive oil and tomatoes. Belgium ranks high with beer, fries, waffles, chocolates and the like. Holland is famous for its dairy especially cheese and all the custards, yogurts and ice cream. Southern Holland and Germany can boast impressive white wines and the latter has a corner on sausages and wursts. Holland too, is famous for its sweets, candy shops and sugar doused pancakes—and bread. Bread is front and center for breakfast (with many choices for toppings, varieties of breads, pastries, etc., and sandwiches (toasties, paninis, sandwiches) for lunch. A most common lunch menu item is ‘toasties,’ which really is a grilled cheese (kaas), ham and cheese (ham & kaas) or cheese & tomato sandwich.

But Holland also has good beer and spirits; they invented gin after all. Though here, gin and tonics are considered antiquated, they are into mixed drinks, beer and vodka. Though my drink of choice tends to be red wine, I am in the land of beer, and consider it my duty to indulge.

Holland’s cafes showcase their loyalties with outdoor signage—you will see what beer they serve before you even know the name of the cafe. Signs jetting out from outside walls, in piazzas and along canals are primarily Amstel, Grolsch or Heineken. Oh, and the occasional Illy (great Italian coffee). The signs are great markers for finding a quick outdoor table or place to relax while the boys kick around the soccer ball on a nearby cobblestone street.

The signage promotes their main beer, but many are offered. Consequently, I have tried Leffe Blond, Wieckse Witt, and Palm (amber). And Hoegarden and Wieckse have Rose beer that is a little too easy to drink. But my new favorite is a Belgian beer: Duval. Full yet smooth, meaty yet polite. If your store stocks the single bottles of Belgian beers, pick one up and try it. It will be money well spent (ehem, it is a lot less expensive for me to drink it while here, than it is for you to buy it there. No doubt a bank-breaker when I return home and long for my favorite Belgium beer(s)).

For more about my family’s [current] adventures in Holland, Belgium, France, England, Italy… visit www.familyfrolics.com

Seriously, it is a must. You cannot leave Holland and not have Dutch pancakes. They are famous for them. As they should be; it is a marriage of two of their most infamous culinary qualities: bread and sweets.

We made a point of eating Dutch Pancakes at a nearby cafe in Amsterdam. They were essentially crepes, sometimes plain and often with thinly sliced ham or cheese or apples baked right into the batter. Frequently, they come with a topping be it raspberry or cream, honey, powdered sugar or chocolate. Shockingly, maple syrup is not always on the list.

Which reminds me. We ran into a kindly Dutch gentleman when we were renting a small canal boat. He had visited the U.S.A. and had much to say [with a large dose of disdain] about American pancakes: all thick and drenched in syrup. He was appalled and could hardly stomach 2 bites.

And while the Dutch very-large crepes were magnificent, we were perhaps even more enthralled with the mini-me’s that appear at festivals. Little carts shoot up with a sign saying ‘Poffertjes’ which means ‘come running.’ Not really, but that is our response. It too, means Dutch pancakes but little ones, of the bite-sized variety. And you buy them with toppings like butter plus powdered sugar (pictured here, barely in time, before we inhaled them), liquor such as rum or cointreau, or whip cream (slagroom in Dutch) and strawberries.

No doubt we will have to try each variety; we are here after all, and it is our duty.

For more stories and tales, food tips and travel hiccups visit my other blog, family frolics.

I am slightly behind on a few reviews, primarily because I was packing up our lives and planning the adventure of a lifetime! As you now know, we left Seattle in the latter part of May, and are cycling across Holland and parts of Belgium and France. By we, I mean our family of four: husband James and sons Anthony and Caleb. For excerpts on our adventure visit www.familyfrolics.com.

I had a few lovely cookbooks that I kept stacked on my kitchen counter, with great intention to inhale and absorb them from cover to cover. But in the end—the day before the movers came—they went into a box marked ‘cookbooks.’ I am still sad that there are beautiful photos and fantastic recipes tucked away in library fashion, beyond my half-a-globe-away reach.

I did manage to sneak a hearty peek at the book on knives. I had seen it on store shelves, but put it out of my mind, figuring I didn’t want to read about the history of knives. But was so glad when the offer came to me to review it, because it forced me to take a closer look. It is so much more than a historical account of the evolution and use of knives. (Which, by the way, really is fascinating).

The book informs the reader re: knife care, proper sharpening and honing, various ways to hold knives and clean them, and progresses through all sorts of knife cuts. It shows pictures of cutting vegetables like carrots and onions, sifts through the quagmire of how-to slice mangoes and avocados, and shows you step by step how to butterfly a chicken.

I love this because one of the reasons I went to culinary school was to learn about cuts. I learned how to fabricate a chicken, julienne vegetables, flute mushrooms, and how to finely dice an onion without sacrificing my fingers. It offers a play by play that I spent big bucks on; but you can take the lessons from this book and learn just as easily. My chef at school used to say: practice. Know the proper cuts, go buy a bag of onions or a bag of potatoes and practice.

And the book convincingly emphasizes that knives are a tool we use so frequently, why wouldn’t we want to know how to hold it, use it, wield it and come to love it?

So yes, I do recommend this book. It may appear to be a book of the coffee table genre, but in fact you can use it as a resource and tool that will offer much more than a historical account of the culinarian’s most common tool. You will learn a thing or two, and upping your knife skills, in my opinion, ups your good sense and good feeling in the kitchen. And I am all for that!

As I write this, I am days from leaving… yet when this posts goes live I will have been gone for a few weeks.

We (family of four) packed up our lives and [when you read this] are cycling across the Netherlands, parts of Belgium, a smidgen of Germany and into Paris. We made the big decision to go for a year abroad, to check out of our American lives to interject a year of adventure with our two [junior high] sons.

After a summer of cycling, a visit to London, and a week-long soccer camp, we will fly to Florence, Italy, and take up residence for the school year. Officially I will have an ex-pat blog! Notes from me to you will be parlo di pomodori (aka ‘talk of tomatoes’).

My blogging may be a little inconsistent for the next two months, because I will be writing in multiple venues. First and foremost, we have launched a family blog to capture our adventures. You are welcome to stop by or follow our frenzy at www.familyfrolics.com. And [hopefully] along the way there will be chunks of time that I can spend working on a book. Something I have always meant to do.

And much like this blog, culinary school, and our trip abroad, writing a book falls under my ever-widening umbrella that reads “things I want to do in my life” AND “seize the day” AND “I only have one chance at this life and want to make it count.”

Much of our trip is about capturing moments, stalling time and soaking up our rapidly growing boys (ages 12, 13). In that vein let me leave you this quote to ponder (passed along from someone wise):

“The days are long but the years are short.”

Stay tuned, talk of tomatoes will include tales from the road and will turn even juicier when we land in Florence come end of August. In the meantime, feel free to stop by our already bursting family blog: Family Frolics. As for now, I hope you are enjoying your summer, that it is filled with fabulous food and cooking, friends and sun on your faces. More soon…

Cast iron pans are a favorite of many a great chefs.

I never owned one; but in culinary school used them and I learned a thing or two. And a few weeks ago, KaTom Restaurant Supplies offered to send me a cast iron skillet to use and review and I said I would love to. Because I really do want to add a cast iron skillet to my kitchen repertoire. They are infinitely useful for cooking crepes and eggs, the key is to care for them properly.

Things to know:

1. it is HEAVY
2. it is slow to conduct heat but once hot distributes heat evenly and steadily; perfect when you are cooking foods that need temperature maintained (pan frying, searing, baking, braising)
3. don’t wash in the dishwasher
4. it transfers easily from stove to to the oven (and broiler)
5. the handle will get hot, too.
6. it is great for making eggs, omelets, crepes, corn bread, etc.
7. it is essential that you season it properly and as needed. Or it will rust.
8. it is essential that you clean it and store it properly. Or it will rust.
9. don’t mix acidic foods with your cast iron skillet, as it will create an off flavor. Acidic foods: citrus, tomatoes, vinegar, wine.
10. cast iron responds slowly to heat change—keep this in mind if you need to quickly adjust temps for meats, sauces, etc.

TO SEASON:

Option 1: With paper towel or clean cloth, rub entire skillet (handle included) with thin film of vegetable oil. Place upside down in 350 oven for an hour (place rack below with foil to catch any oil). Turn off oven and let cool. Repeat as needed.

Option 2: Place a large amount of course salt (1 cup or more, depending on size of pan) plus enough vegetable oil to almost form a paste. Heat over burner until is smokes, remove from burner, shift salt around inside of pan and discard. Repeat as needed (aka if your skillet is no longer ‘nonstick’ you should repeat this process. The salt fills in the ‘cracks’ to create a smooth surface).

TO CLEAN:

Option 1: wipe with lightly oiled paper towel, store with dry paper towel lining skillet.

Option 2: sprinkle with coarse salt and rub with dry paper towel. If you HAVE to use mild soapy water to clean, re-season it right away (set over heat to fully dry skillet, while warm, rub with tiny amount of vegetable oil and paper towel.

Your skillet, properly loved, will last a lifetime. AND if you really get the hang of using it: perfect eggs every time. Makes me go weak in the knees just thinking about it. You can find an overwhelming number of cast iron recipes just by searching on Google…